Eighth severed foot washes up on Canada's Pacific coast

A severed foot has washed up on the shores of Canada's Pacific coast, in the eighth such incident in two years, police said on Thursday.

6:46PM GMT 29 Oct 2009

The foot, in a size 8.5 white Nike running shoe, was discovered on Tuesday by two men walking on a beach in a suburb of Vancouver, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

The British Columbia coroners' office is conducting a forensic autopsy and other tests to try to match it to missing persons, police said.

Seven feet were previously found along the rugged coast of British Columbia province and the neighbouring US state of Washington, including one later determined to have belonged to a missing man who was depressed. The other feet discovered include a female pair, a male pair and a male right foot.

DNA testing has not yet determined the identities of the others, said police.

Scientists say the feet could have drifted dozens or thousands of miles because human body parts can remain intact in water for years when protected by shoes or sturdy clothing.

"There has been no evidence to date to support foul play in relation to these discoveries and it appears that all remains separated from the body, disarticulated, through a natural process," police said.